The present invention relates to packing a plurality of food products into containers.
The packing of many food products, for example, crepes, into consumer cartons is, at the present time, done by hand. In the case of crepes, the extremely thin and fragile nature of the crepe material, often containing a very sticky filling, makes it difficult to devise a suitable automatic system which operates without damaging the crepes. In addition, it is essential that crepes are compactly placed in the package so that no movement occurs between the individual crepes which might cause damage and this is very difficult to ensure when using automatic methods.
Hand packing is labour intensive and it is desirable not only to reduce labour costs but also to ensure that the products are untouched by hand. Automatic packing methods have been described in the prior art but they have usually involved complicated arrangements making use of, for example, elevators or suction cups. We have now devised an extremely simple system using two conveyor belts which enables the food products to be packed into containers in a compact row without any damage occurring and substantially without any movement of the food products relative to one another in the final package.